Brookfield buys Unitech Corporate Park assets for Rs 2,050 cr

Candor Investments is the holding company for UCP's interests in its six real estate projects. Reuters

SummaryUnitech Corporate Parks (UCP), the London Stock Exchange-listed firm that owns six IT special economic zones...

Unitech Corporate Parks (UCP), the London Stock Exchange-listed firm that owns six IT special economic zones (SEZs) in India, has agreed to sell its stake in the projects to Canada's Brookfield Asset Management for about 205.9 million pounds (Rs 2,050 crore).

In a filing to the London Stock Exchange (LSE), UCP said it has signed a deal to sell a majority stake in the projects to Brookfield.

Isle of Man-incorporated UCP had formed a 60:40 joint venture with Unitech Ltd, India's second-largest realty company by market capitalisation, to develop six SEZs and information technology (IT) parks in Gurgaon, Noida and Kolkata.

Unitech separately said it is selling its stake in four of the six projects for an undisclosed amount. It owns 40 per cent in five of the six projects and 36 per cent in the sixth property in Kolkata.

Brookfield has bought UCP's 60 per cent share in all the six assets and Unitech's 40 per cent in four assets.

Three of the IT parks/SEZs are located in Noida, two in Gurgaon and one in Kolkata.

The four assets that Unitech has exited are the G1 and G2 IT Parks in Gurgaon, N2 in Noida and K1 IT SEZ in Kolkata.

Industry sources put Unitech's realisation at over Rs 1,300 crore.

"The offer for UCP's property interests from Brookfield at above the latest book valuation reflects the hard work put in over recent years to let the office space and grow income, in order to achieve the best possible price on behalf of investors in the company," UCP Chairman Donald Lake said.

"The independent directors believe that the proposed sale represents a very attractive opportunity for investors to realise strong value from the properties and facilitate a distribution of the proceeds, and I urge all shareholders to vote in favour of the resolutions proposed at the extraordinary general meeting," he said.

Unitech informed the BSE that it has divested its entire holding in four of the properties.

"These four SEZs are the most mature in terms of their development status. As part of this transaction, certain affiliates of Unitech will continue to manage and develop these assets to ensure that there is no impact on tenants and other stakeholders," it added.

Unitech, which had a net debt of Rs 6,316 crore as of March 31, is likely to use the proceeds to repay loans.